Services

New Development

Applications come in all shapes and sizes. Inventory management, sales tracking, manufacturing controls, data collection, and hardware interfacing are just some of the things good software makes easier.

Good software also saves you time and money. We can help you determine if a custom software solution is what you need. When you have a tedious, time consuming, or repetitive task then a software solution may be able to save you time and thus save you money.

Here are just a few of the ways we can help your business:

Reporting and Data Collection

A lot of businesses use spreadsheets to track sales, manufacturing, inventory and for forecasting with multiple spreadsheets that need to be cross referenced to find the information you need. We can consolidate your data, and provide easy to use reports to increase visibility into your process.

Process Automation

When you have an automated process that needs a Human Machine Interface, Data Acquisition, or Material Tracking, we can develop a solution that will make controlling the process easier, allow you to accurately monitor the process, and even notify you when maintenance is needed or due.

Internal and Customer Facing Applications

Software applications can make things easier for you, your employees, and your customers. A few examples of these types of software applications are customer kiosks showing off products and other information, or internal tools for time record keeping, testing tools, dashboards, and monitoring applications.

With all the types of software applications out there, there is way for the right software solution to improve your business. Contact us and we would be happy to discuss ways that we can help save time and money.

Existing Applications

For various reasons, existing applications need attention. It could be because it has simply become outdated, it no longer fits your business, or over time bugs have been discovered and workarounds are no longer feasible. Worst case it is an application that was developed new but does not work the way you intended, or barely works at all. Kindred Operations can dive into the application and determine what it would take to ‘make it right’.

We try to work within the application's existing architecture to add any new features that you may need, and typically that's the way it works out. Most of the time the only changes needed are things like adding another data point to a data collection application, or fixing a bug where unexpected input results in undesired behavior. These types of changes rarely result in architecture changes.

Sometimes a new feature or other issue cannot be done within the existing design and architecture of an application. When this is the case, we try to preserve as much of the existing code as possible and restructure the application in a way that supports the needed changes.

For some applications, it may not be reasonable to try to fix what is broken, and it’s better to just start fresh. This can happen when the existing application is very old, or it is very poorly written. When this happens a few parts of the application can be kept and reused, but for the most part, it’s like new development.

Supplemental Resources

You rely on your core team, but sometimes unexpected things happen that increase the scope or effort required to complete your project on time. Kindred Operations can help you keep things on track by providing additional as-needed resources to work with your core team.

We know that adding additional resources late in a project to bring it back under control generally doesn’t work, but adding the additional resources early in the project can help. Adding resources early gives those resources time to ramp up, and understand the project goals, structure, tools, and the process methodology used. This allows those additional resources to function coherently within your team. Unfortunately, adding developers early like this can lead to padding a development team with developers that may not be fully utilized.

Kindred Operations can provide the early additional resources in a small and limited capacity, working only on small bits and pieces and keeping up with project as a whole. You only have to pay for the time actually spent on the project, not for a full time developer. This allows us to be already familiar with your project if the unexpected does happen and prevents the drain on your core team as a new developer is added.

Adding resources late in the project can work if done correctly. When your application has distinct separate concerns with clear boundaries, an additional resource can take on a portion of the application without incurring a heavy drain on your existing team as they ramp up.

Think of a jigsaw puzzle that has separate areas such as a sky, a tree line, and a lake with a dock. Imagine you have three people each assinged to work on a distinct part of it. If the person working on the lake and dock runs into issues and cannot complete their section on time, adding an additional person to help them will likely result in confusion, and a slow down as there is a greater likelyhood of one holding a piece the other needs. If, on the other hand, the additional person were added to work only on the dock, then the orginal person working on the lake can focus on the water. Now there is less impact on those already working on the puzzle and it can be completed in less time. When added late to the project, we can complete the dock so the lake as a whole doesn’t hold up the rest of the project.